Spectrum Access Reimagined

For anyone who has followed this column over the years, I’ve always been keenly interested in the various DARPA “Challenge” events. Beginning over 10 years back with the DARPA Grand Challenge, Congress has continued to authorized DARPA to award cash prizes to further DARPA’s mission to sponsor revolutionary, high-payoff research that bridges the gap between fundamental discoveries and military use. The initial DARPA Grand Challenge was created to spur the development of technologies needed to create the first fully autonomous ground vehicles capable of completing a substantial off-road course within a limited time. Over the years there’s been a number of challenges addressing technology areas like cyber security and robotics.